Conventionally, a device for acquiring information can be a radio, television, etc. for receiving a broadcast, a telephone, a FAX, etc. for directly accessing a specific information source. Recently, with the widespread use of the Internet, digital information such as text, audio, images, etc. can be acquired from all over the world using a PC (personal computer), etc. only by specifying a URL (uniform resource locator) of a predetermined Web site.
Furthermore, there is a common method of acquiring information without using the communication media by participating in an event such as an exhibition, a seminar, etc. In these festivals, information is provided as printed matters such as a catalog, a written material, etc.
A patent document 1 proposes a system of acquiring information using a mobile information terminal for use by each visitor at an event place.
When information is acquired over a communication network such as the Internet, a telephone network, etc., it is necessary for a user to acquire information for designation of an information source such as an URL of a Web site, a telephone number, etc., and it is a laborious operation to acquire such information.
On the other hand, in an event place, an exhibiter, etc. has to estimate a large number of visitors and prepare a large number of materials. Therefore, the load of the cost of the free materials has been considerably heavy for exhibiters. When a visitor collects information, he or she searches for and collects paper printed materials from a number of exhibiter booths, and brings them home. Therefore, the visitor requires a long time and much labor. Additionally, to store the collected materials as files, the file storage space has to be prepared. Although electronic file storage has been devised, but the labor for the electronic process also needs much work.
The system proposed in the patent document 1 is realized by totally managing the mobile information terminals, etc. provided for each visitor by the organizer of the event. Using the terminal, desired information can be acquired as electronic data. However, if a terminal is not controlled by the system, the system is unavailable.
The present invention has been developed to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims at providing an information acquisition device capable of easily and freely acquiring information without specific management or information for designating by an information requester an information source such as an URL, a telephone number, etc., an information providing device capable of providing information for one or more unspecified information requesters located close to one another, and an information providing system including the devices.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2000-115845